PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — Fernando Brandt, the vice president of Big Bus Miami, arrived at the WPLG Local 10 News studios on Thursday with a double-decker bus and a toy delivery.

Mayte Padron Cordones, WPLG Local 10’s community relations director, said it was going to make nine stops on Friday in South Florida as The Big Bus Toy Express.

The mission: To collect community donations for South Florida Toys for Tots, a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve-led charity that supports 500 nonprofit organizations.

“Those 500 organizations, in turn, distribute them to the children that they serve,” Padron Cordones said.

The Big Bus Toy Express has collected about 165,000 toys in the last 11 years. The 12th annual toy drive will be collecting new and unwrapped toys during four stops in Miami-Dade and at five stops in Broward.

Gary Sturgess, of the Knights of Columbus, said they started their collection in July and gathered some 1,000 toys valued at about $15,000.

The celebration started with the Alchemy Twirl & Dance team. Corp. Gustavo Lopez, the South Florida Toys for Tots coordinator, was hard at work in Hialeah.

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